VOICE COACHING, because voice leadership is self-leadership – and that’s good for us!
It sounds so trivial and banal – but it’s not! Because exhaling means that we let go, that we give up the “have-eight” position. However, this is only possible if we – or rather our Stone Age brain, which determines around 95% of our lives (watch out! the word voice is in there again!) – feel safe, don’t sense any danger and want to be “on the run” to save ourselves, our bodies and escape from the threatening situation.
Unfortunately, we can’t directly reprogramme our ancient Stone Age brain to realise that our lives are not always a matter of life and death – well, we know that interpretations are individual and different. So again, it’s our job to reassure ourselves and our Stone Age brains. Because crazy enough, when we exhale, our Stone Age brain thinks we are safe (otherwise we wouldn’t have exhaled – it thinks so) and promptly stops producing stress hormones…
Consciously influencing our subconscious – sometimes it works
We have an autonomous, independent nervous system with two main nervous systems that control us, our lives and our energy supply in many directions.
The sympathetic nervous system immediately releases stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol etc. in response to internal alarm signals, the individual interpretation of danger, which immediately supplies us with energy, heart rate increases, pulse rate increases, muscles are supplied with oxygen so that we can FLY or have energy to FIGHT. Or the DEADLINE REFLEX is activated as a solution survival variant.
This is a super-nice rescue gift from our Stone Age brain – but unfortunately it is absolutely counterproductive in any verbal communication situation! My favourite word fits here again: SHAME!
However, we also have a parasympathetic nervous system, which brings us down and relaxes us.
The main nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system is the vagus nerve. We activate it when we exhale. It can be so simple, it’s just so challenging under stress! It runs through the entire body and also through our vocal apparatus. That’s why every nervous tension, every feeling that manifests itself at a nervous level can be heard in our voice.
So we have to consciously talk to our subconscious, act on it, redirect it, etc. The possible solution is to counteract the inner reflex to tense everything, to be able to act as a flash in the pan, to consciously dissolve the tension and BREATHE IT OUT. Let’s get started … HHH!
VOICE COACHING TIPS super.simple.effective.
Breathing out calms our own nervous system – if we make it audible (without exaggerating), it can relax the other person and release tense moods
Breathing out can dissolve tense moods and relax the other person (if we don’t overdo it – a sure instinct for the optimum situation is required here)
After knowledge comes action – as primitive as it may sound! Have fun experimenting!
Yours,
Voice expert.
